1. Groups at the World Championships2. Defeated By Ratio3. Medals at the European Championships for Individuals4. Medals at the European Championships for Groups5. Rankings and Statistics at European Championships6. Rankings and Statstics at World Championships7. Medals at the World Championships for Individuals8. A selection: special medals obtained

Since 1963, 30 World Champions have been held, in which the first group competition took place in 1967 in Copenhague (DEN). It was not until1977 in Basel (SUI) groups had to perform two routines. There have been 25 World Championships were groups had to compete (1963, 1965, 1993, 1997 and 2001 were the exceptions).

If correctly, it was not until 1987 groups had to perform two different routines.

Only in 1973, 1975, 1981, 1983 and 1985 an All Around Final took place; in all other cases the qualifications equals the all around results. The All Around Final was the qualifying score added to their final score. In 1981, 1983 and 1985, this was the average of the qualifying scores.

The largest amount of groups competed was in Moscow 2010 (29) and Paris 1994 (29). The lowest amounts were in Havana 1971 (9), Copenhague 1967 (11) and Madrid (1975). From the latter, it is important to know that several countries (including all East European countries) boycotted the Madrid 1975 Worlds because of the regime of Franco.

In 1995, the group composition changed from 6 to 5 gymnast in favor of the Olympic Games in 1996, where the group competition first hit the stage at the Olympic level. Or in other words: the IOC required to do so.

A total of 53 nations have participated:

Code:

NOC DEBUT LAST Part. Best Worst----------------------------------------

- ON the other hand, we have some consistent countries, including the Soviet Union, who never dropped lower than 2nd rank, and ISR, between 4th-6th, although they only competed three times.

- AZE is perhaps the most improved country: from 28th in 1994, to 11th in 2005, and peaking as 4th in 2009.

- ARM and GEO are the only two countries who have participated only once: ARM in 1994, GEO in 2010.

Somehow you can calculate the average ranking of each country obtained so far and predict a bit in which group the country usually finishes.However,

this is no guarantee -- remember the sudden leap of AZE, and the great moves forward from the southern-European countries... Besides, an average mark usually does not take an extremely well or extremely bad result very well, in that sense you need to check out the best 68% if the distribution is normal. Also, it is much dependent on how many countries compete, so maybe one should calculate a "defeating percentage chance". And finally, not each country is being repesented.. For instance, Norway didn't send a senior group to a WCh since 1991, Denmark since 1977, and Belgium since 1979.

The Group Event Finals were first contested at the 1987 World Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, as a result from letting the groups perform two separate and different routines.

Let me first start off with the routine with the same apparatus.

- Only Greece was capable of conquering a gold medal, instead of the traditional Bulgarian/Russian battle, although Russia won most titles.

- Surprisingly, the recent successful Italians never won any title with this apparatus. On the other hand, they won 4 consecutive silver medals, that exceeds the record of three consecutive wins of Russia.

- Ukraine won only one title: the one with the five ribbons in 2002. It is noteworthy Bessonova, Yerofeeva, Godunko (and Dzyobchuck) were in this group.

Now we'll continue with the combined routine. It is a pity the event finals were started in 1987, as otherwise, we could've seen the event finals for Rope/Hoop. I wonder if there has been any ball/clubs combination before 1987, too...

Anyway: the titles are here much more diverse. Spain holds the title of most consecutive wins, culminating three gold medals in 1995, 1996 and 1998.

- Greece managed to do this twice, though, in 1999 and 2002. One must know that the combination routine is usually one of the strongerroutines of Greece though. At least, that was applicable late '90's /early '00's.

So after 25 World Championships where Group Competitions have been available, Russia leads the medal table with only one medal difference.

Italy surpassed the record of the Soviet Union and is approaching Spain, which was very successfull in the late '80's and early '90's, Italy won most medals in the recent years, with only 3 medals obtained before 2000 (the 1975 AA Title, and the 1992 Brussels WCh Event Medals).

In this episode -- or rather continuation of the previous entries -- I decided to take a more precise look on the ranking of countries in the group competitions at the World Championships.

The statistic as I call the defeated by ratio is explained as follows:

- The DEFEATED BY percentage calculates the average percentage of acountry in which it is defeated by other countries. This applies to the ALL AROUND results. In years where a separate all around final has been held, the first 8 rankings of that final determined the final positionfor that year. The reamining rankings (9 or lower) were preserved.

- A 100% Score for one year indicates that the country ranked at the bottom of the list. A score of 45,35% for instance means that this country has been defeated by 45,35%of all participating groups. This means that this nation was better than 54,65% of the other groups. A 0% means that the country defeated 100% (= all) countries. By averaging all scores per year, the average defeated by ratio comes up. Example: Group A ranks in the AA, 7th, out of the 20 countries, then the defeated by ratio is 7/20=0,35 or 35%. The country is defeated by 35%, and has defeated 65%. In both cases, that includes the country itself, though.

- So to recap, the LOWER the % score, the better the country ranks. The HIGHER the % score, the worser.

- The score thus takes the number of countries for each tournament into account

- However, the score is still being calculated in a number of average participations, resulting in some countries to rank fairly good, while they have not send a team for a long time and vice versa. This appears to be for countries which do not exist very long (the former Soviet Republics), or countries which have been dissolved meanwhile.

At the list below, you can see that clearly Russia edges out all other countries, with an average of 8.99% defeat.

However, several countries have had appearances less than 7 times, in which you could question yourself if this output is reliable. Perhaps I should limit the results since 1995. The top 15 then looks more or less the same, except that Azerbaijan scores much better, although it can be said that was only from the last 4 world championships. Romania's result is hereby questionable, with only 2 appearances

A fun aspect from the above selection, is that only the countries above has been able to send a group 10 out of 10 times from the last world championships which involved Groups. An exception can be found for the country that now ranks 33rd, which is KOR (South-Korea) with a 86,40% defeated by ratio, who was also capable to send a group to the last 10 worlds'. It more or less reveals in which countries Rhythmic Gymnasticsplays an import role for their respective federations -- at least, for groups, that is.

As indicated above, the list looks slightly different, when the groups own positon is not being used.

If a country ranks 7th out of 20th, as such, the country has defeated 20-7=13 countries. There are 13+6=19 other countries in total. This means that 13 out of 19 other countries have been defeated. In this case, the ratio changes to a defeats ratio. Following this algorithm, the total average looks like the table below. In here, the precentages are the exact inverse: a HIGH percentage means a better score -- a 0% means that the country so far always ended up last.

It reveals that despite Bulgaria's successes over the years, it does not mean that it is better in defeating other countries -- Belarus is slightly better regarding this. It also shows that the Soviet Union was slightly better than the Russians these days -- but that is mainly, because the Soviet Union never dropped below 2nd rank in the AA, whereas RUS also founds itself at a 3rd or 4th AA position.

130 gymnasts participated (record: 1997 Berlin with 159)24 groups have anticipated a participation52 countries have sent at least one individual gymnast;31 of them were capable of sending a full team.

This resulted in the largest difference between teams and competing countries ever!

Debuting at this World Championship are Guatemala and Montenegro, both sending one gymnast only.

Alright, now let's get to the point for this blog entry:

During this world championships there are a total 27 medals to be earned:4x3=12 for the Individual Events3 for the Team Event3 for the Individual All Around3 for the Group All Around2x3=6 for the Group Events

At the moment of writing, we are halfway through when it comes to medals to be divided among the countries: there are 12 medals left to be grabbed.

So what is the current statistics then, including those other 15 medals that have been obtained?

There have been 17 gymnasts who have earned at least 10 medals at world championships for all competitions (individual all around, event finals and team all around). They include (first sorted by total medals, then by gold, silver and bronze respectively):

Without any doubt, Kanaeva is already the most successful rhythmic gymnast in history, with an accummulation of AT LEAST 12 gold medals.

Frantically, she never won any bronze medal... (neither did Kondakova) The only other gymnast who never won a bronze medal at worlds (while winning heaps of other medals) was Alexandra Timochenko...

Let me take off with the Team Results. As stated before, the team competition was only initiated in 1989 at the Sarajevo World Championship. The rules were simple: a full team had to send out three gymnasts: each gymnast performs four routines, and all of them are counting.

In 1993, this was changed, since there were five apparatuses to be contested: a maximum of four gymnasts had to represent ten routines (2 per apparatus), while a gymnast had a restriction of maximum four routines. This resulted in gymnasts performing only 1 or 2 routines.

This would later have its effect in a double amount of participating gymnasts, especially from 1997 onwards.

In 1995, again a rule change was into effect. A team consisted of eight routines: 2 routines per apparatus. This resulted in fair small teams, with two gymnasts only.

In 1997 and 1999, the team competition final was introduced. The qualifying format was simple: 12 routines (3 per apparatus), minimum 3, maximum 4 gymnasts. All routines are counting: the best 8 qualified for the Final: in this first or two rotations, each country had to present four or eight routines respectively: in 1997, the teams ranked 5-8 would be eliminated after two rounds; in 1999 teams 7-8 would be eliminated after round one, teams 5-6 after round two.

From 2001 onwards, with a changing COP and with a larger point scale, the format was again changed for the team medals: each country had to present 12 routines, in which the best 10 count. A minimum of 10 routines is required. in 2005 the requirement of a minimum of 10 routines has been removed: all countries have to present 12 routines.

This was in favour of France in 2003, as they could not show more than 10 routines after an injury of one of the gymnasts halfway through. This was certainly NOT in favour of Ukraine in 2007, where something went wrong with the participation of Godunko in her Hoop routine: Ukraine only had 11 routines, and did no longer comply to the 12-routine rule...

Enough background on the team results... as I have posted earlier on the countries who won, let us take a closer look on the individual gymnasts that contributed to the medals:

4: Medals Obtained at Individual World Championship Competitions (part 2) - a closer look at the event final results at the Worlds: freehands, rope and hoop.

The freehands routine was only contested at the 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1969 World Champions. This programme has been gradually phased out of (back then called) Modern Gymnasts, to emphasis more on other elements of the sports which have been strongly evolved throughout the decades.

In 1963, the full programme existed of an All-Around (without qualification) composed by a freehands and rope routine. Subsequently the following programmes were added to rhythmic gymnasts:

In 1967 in Copenhague: the hoop routine was introducedIn 1969 in Varna: ballIn 1971 in Cuba: ribbon, and finally:In 1973 in Rotterdam: clubs.

The idea of a rotation between the apparatuses per year was quickly introduced with the additional routines, as in 1973 (the first year in which we know the present day apparatuses), the rope routine was not being contested.

Perhaps something obvious, but somehow logical, is that in the first year the apparatus was being contested, the scores were always somewhat low. We will see this later on.

Next, in the first 6-8 years, the archives only tell us that a gymnast has been working without AND with apparatus. It is not known to us WHICH apparatus, but I have been counting it as rope, keeping the introductions of the other apparatus gradually in mind.

Finally, it is clearly noticeable there were no tie-breaking rules in effect until late 1997. As a result, there have been many more medal winners than one can expect. The first tie-breaking were introduced after the multiple medal winners at especially the 1997 European Championships, where there were even four silver medallists for one event final. Either way, in the past, the FIG added the qualification score to the event final, but this was considered not done, since only the moment of the final is what counts; this was obviously not desired for the newer generations of gymnasts. Special tie-breaking rules came into effect, in which they have changed slightly. First of all, usually the lowest/highest individual judge values are being neglected, but in case of a tie, all values count. If there still is a tie, then the routine with the highest execution value is declared winner.... and so on and so forth (I have lost track of this rule since a couple of years)... This results in more regulated medal winners in the post-1997 years.

Now, that being said, let us take a look at the separate apparatuses.

First, I'll start with

INDIVIDUAL FREEHANDS medals

This first list is rather short since it only contains results of four world championships, namely 1963-1965-1967-1969. The results were as follows:

I can't really comment on these routines, so, we'll continue with the:

INDIVIDUAL ROPE medals

You might want to maximize your screen result for a better view (or scale the page), since the comment fields are rather large...

- Larissa Lukyanenko of Belarus is the only gymnast who have won three gold medals, so we can consider her as the best rhythmic gymnasts all time with rope. Because we don't know if the rope ever returns to RG, she will remain the absolute victor on this apparatus for a while...

Resulting in the following Medal Table (the two-digit combinations refer to the year they have obtained the medal) -- First sorted by total medals, then by gold, silver and bronze. Within an equal rank, sorted by latest to oldest.

Surprisingly, strong AA-medallists often end up with less medals with rope than they think... Kabaeva and Petrova both have only 1 silver medal for rope, for instance.

Finally, for this blog entry, we'll take a look at the

INDIVIDUAL HOOP Medals

The Hoop is as you might know the most versatile apparatus. Introduced at the 1967 World Championships in Denmark, the first scores appeared to be very low. However, it is the hoop routine in where Maria Guigova excels, culminating a win of four gold medals. Evgeniya Kanaeva appears to be very close with three gold (also consecutive) medals.

- Also interesting: only two gymnasts have won a medal in each colour, and the appear to be compatriots from each other, namely Ukrainians Anna Bessonova and Elena Vitrichenko.

- There were two occasions in which there were only three gold medallists: 1989 and 1994! Talking about judges being unable to determine who's best...

- Finally, two unusual countries (as in: not Eastern-European) won also a medal: France (Serrano) and Israel (Rivkin).

But first, let us kick off with the top three of each Hoop apparatus final: